Written by Texas Highways

There’s no doubt that Texas contains an ever-evolving mix of people and ideas. And with changing times come new offerings for travelers to explore the state’s fascinating history, environment, and culture. Looking ahead to 2017, we’ve scoured the state for 17 new or refreshed attractions. From the recently updated Landmark Inn in Castroville, which first opened to guests in 1853, to a striking new aquarium exhibit at Corpus Christi’s Texas State Aquarium, these enticing new destinations will stretch the boundaries of your own Texas experience.

Even before retailers slash the price of leftover Halloween candy, they’re decorating their windows with spray-on frost and setting their sound systems on an endless loop of Christmas carols. By the first week of December, even the jolliest of souls can start to feel a bit jaded.

Twas the day trip before Christmas and all through the state, the towns were decked out, and Chet could not wait.” We always say, “Everything’s bigger in Texas,” and the phrase definitely applies to the way we celebrate Christmas, especially in Grapevine, the “Christmas Capital of Texas.” Donning my best reindeer sweater and Santa hat, I pranced to the metroplex to catch the holiday spirit.

No state is more musical than Texas, whose very geography seems to hum. Even the city names remind you of songs. It’s easy to break into a medley of “San Antonio Rose,” “El Paso,” “Streets Of Laredo,” “Amarillo By Morning,” “Galveston,” and “La Grange” while checking out the ol’ Texas road map.

During the holiday season, the fresh air and cheerful sunlit peaks of Fort Davis become all the more festive thanks to the town’s Frontier Christmas Festival. This mile-high community in the foothills of the Davis Mountains commemorates its Old West history, scenic mountain setting, and the delicious tradition of homemade cookies with the annual holiday celebration, scheduled for Saturday, December 10, this year.

In planning the holiday-themed photo feature that appears in the December 2016 issue, Texas Highways Photography Editor Brandon Jakobeit challenged some of our most creative photographers to interpret the season’s spirit with landscapes and lights.

I push open the weathered metal-and-glass door of Naegelin’s Bakery and immediately face a dilemma. On one side of the narrow room, bakery cases display an array of goodies—kolaches, cinnamon rolls, colorful cupcakes, candies, brownies, cakes, and pies. On the other, shelves are laden with rolls, bread, coffee cakes, gingerbread men, cookies, and bags of fresh tortillas.

For restaurateur and cookbook author Sylvia Casares, the road to becoming Houston’s beloved “Enchilada Queen” started mid-career. “I was 42 when I left the corporate world,” she says. “Looking back on it, I surprise myself when I think about what I did: Leaving a secure, nice job with great pay and great benefits, and diving in feet-first without any prior restaurant experience.”

My 15-year old was skeptical when I told her we were going to see the Zoo Lights at the Houston Zoo for New Year’s Eve. Wasn’t that for babies? Wasn’t she too old for all that now, and didn’t she have better things to do, like play games on her smartphone, watch video clips online, and text her friends? Nope, I told her. We were going. With only a few precious years of child-rearing left to go, I didn’t intend to waste a single season, and soon my powers of persuasion (or coercion) would lose their effect. Plus, I suspected that the outsized holiday spectacle would dazzle her back into childhood enchantment.

Not exactly lost but not exactly in plain sight, the community of Jonesville sits near the Texas-Louisiana border, just as it has since Texas’ earliest days as a state. Visitors will notice the deteriorating wooden structures along the Union Pacific railroad, relics of the area’s cotton-shipping past. But Jonesville refuses to disappear, thanks largely to its only private business—the T.C. Lindsey & Co. General Store, which has operated continuously since 1847.

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ABOUT TEXAS HIGHWAYS

Published monthly by the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Highways, the official travel magazine of Texas, encourages travel to and within the Lone Star State and tells the Texas story to readers around the world.